A collection of reviews of films from off the beaten path; a travel guide for those who love the cinematic world and want more than the mainstream releases.

Saturday, October 31, 2015

In Brief: Summer Camp (2015) Scary Movies 2015

Playing Monday night at 9 as part of Lincoln Center's Scary Movies series is SUMMER CAMP a new spin on the zombie/madness inducing disease genre.

At the El Buho summer camp the camp in Spain four American counselors have a problem. the people around them are suddenly going crazy- total psychotic blood lust and insanity coming out of nowhere. The counselors begin to attack each other, but there is a weird wrinkle- it only last for 20 minutes and then you're completely fine and totally unaware that you went off your nut. The result is total chaos because the people you're attacking are fighting for their lives and they really don't know you'll be fine in a couple of minutes. Will anyone survive the madness?

Once the film gets out of the genre's cliche filled territory of the set up things begin to pick up since the film isn't sliding down the same old genre tracks. The simple addition of a time limit on the killing madness makes this something special. Never before did anyone have to worry about having to worry about killing your best friend. In all previous variations of the tale one you turn its allover, but here you have to worry about killing your best friend because they'll get better. The big question becomes how far to you go to protect yourself when you know the madness is going to pass? Its an intriguing question and its something that fuels the tension in the film.

While not absolutely perfect, the film still suffers from a couple of cliched moments, this is still a really solid little film. Frankly it's one of the best films at this year's Scary Movies, new or old. Definitely worth getting a ticket and going to see it.